A Greensboro real estate investor and resident have made her concern heard about an earlier purchase by the city of Greensboro.
Maria Wayne inquired about the status of the former BB&T branch that has sat vacant since its purchase by the city in October of 2018.
Wayne has included the property while publicly voicing her opinions to the Greensboro City Council at its last two meetings. She says the city needs to be more transparent and accountable to its taxpayers.
Four years ago, the BB&T bank building at 201 South Main Street was purchased by the city for $385,000. The intent of the purchase was to use the facility as the new city hall and headquarters. It has sat vacant since then and is showing visible wear that will need considerable rehabilitation funds from the city budget.
Wayne sees it as a city purchase that needed a significant amount of improvement capital to make it both functional and visibly appealing for those approaching the city from I-20.
“The city never exercised its due diligence with this purchase,” she said. “Although purchased under Glen Wright’s administration before leaving office, the city manager and two council people still remain serving the city. A commercial investment purchase is far different than that from a residential purchase. Once properties sit unoccupied, they tend to become rundown. This is clearly the case with this bank purchase.”
Wayne feels strongly that the city should have done a better job in the bank purchase by qualifying it as a sound purchase, receiving multiple competitive bids for rehab, and accounting for any and all repairs in a budget shared with the public before moving ahead with its intended use as a new city hall.
Correspondence was first submitted by Wayne earlier in the year asking for specific details from Mayor Corey Williams and City Manager Larry Postell.
She claims her questions went unanswered and felt compelled to keep pressing for information publicly at Greensboro council meetings.
Wayne has also voiced her opposition to County Commissioner candidate Melanie Miller’s use of the bank parking lot to hold a series of meet and greets with the public. Jeff Lister, who is running for a city council seat, had inquired as to similar use for his efforts but was not given any information or city permission to date to use the lot. Miller claims she was given permission by the city for her use.
Ward also claims the city has moved ahead with renovations to Festival Hall and was surprised to learn that Williams’ father was ultimately hired to do some of the work. Calls to the city to confirm have gone unanswered as of press time.
“Any familial connections to city work are questionable,” she said. “There needs to be full accountability with competitive bids, project cost, schedules, and project completion. As a taxpayer, I do not want any city work ties to government employees in Greensboro. It is not right and never a good idea in municipal government.”
In an email exchange from Postell in late September to Wayne, Postell addressed some concerns specific to the bank purchase. He claims the city did not perform any known due diligence with the purchase and that it had been bought under Wright’s former administration.
When pressed by Wayne to obtain annual expenses from purchase year to present, Postell answered that the city “keeps water, sewer and electricity current by making mostly minimum payments.”
Postell also confirmed that the city has no written policies in effect for public use of the building’s lot. He claims the city did give permission to a “handful of Democrats” to use the bank lot presently.
“In two earlier emails to the city that went unanswered, I stated the obvious,” she said. “No political partisan events should be held in/on city-owned property paid by community taxpayers.”
To date, the city has not provided any information on requests, approvals or schedules of lot use.
Wayne went on to express that Greensboro has much going for it, and the city needs to promote new businesses to the downtown sector.
She claims the sidewalks need work, and the old buildings are rapidly deteriorating. She also feels the city needs to better promote itself to entice investment, tourists, and shopping along the downtown sector. She feels earlier investors have become wary of some of the difficulties they have encountered with the city.
Subsequent requests to the city to provide further details were met with a reply from Postell that most of the information was in “the cloud” and difficult to obtain. Wayne was advised that there would be charges for time and expense involved in obtaining the information for her, a taxpayer.